Commercial traffic will pass the two million passengers mark in the first week of December, and private aviation has shown an unprecedented 25% growth…
MERIDA — For the regional director of Grupo Asur, Héctor Navarrete Muñoz, and the general manager of Mérida International Airport, Óscar Carrillo Maldonado, the unprecedented growth of travelers in both segments is due to the economic, industrial, tourist, urban and social development of Yucatán, a positive trend that has been noted for five years.
(Photo: Google)
Private aviation records the daily influx arriving from different parts of the country, mainly from Toluca airport, the major base for air taxis; as well as Cozumel, Chetumal, Ciudad del Carmen, Playa del Carmen, Villahermosa, Houston, Miami, Fort Lauderdale, Kentucky, Cuba and Belize, and others from the Caribbean Islands, South America and Central America.
The platform of private aviation has capacity for 56 planes; although sometimes that figure is exceeded, facilities are never saturated thanks to the efficiency of workers allowing smooth management of arrivals and departures.
(Photo: Google)
According to General Manager Carrillo Maldonado, during the recent contingency for the hurricanes that threatened Quintana Roo, Merida functioned as a shelter for 42 extra aircraft, plus the 44 that have their base in the Mérida terminal.
Navarrete Muñoz reported that the private terminal sees around 53 to 60 daily operations, something like 1,600 departures and arrivals per month, an extraordinary movement that has not been seen since 1994 when a large number of Yucatecan businessmen had private planes, which were sold as a result of the economic crisis of 1994.
Merida’s airport is rated among the 10 most profitable and efficient airports in the country and among the top 50 in Latin America and the Caribbean.
It has 4 heliports, 17 hangars (4 of them under construction) and a private terminal with all the amenities for passengers and pilots which was inaugurated last February. This exclusive terminal for private aviation has immigration and customs services for international flights for quick and easy documentation.
Navarrete Muñoz reported that Mérida’s private terminal is the largest, after Toluca’s, exceeding even the Cancun terminal, which has millions of passengers.
From January to September, the Mérida terminal received 1,680,000 passengers, and October was another very good month due to Ficmaya artistic festivities and the Day of the Dead releated events.
Mérida airport has infrastructure to cover passenger demand until 2020, but with the increase in the number of passengers and the arrival of airplanes in 2018, managers will review the Master Development Plan to prepare for the year 2023 because they must always anticipate the demand to reach the largest number of aircraft of all sizes.
Source: www.yucatan.com.mx
